Rescuers are fighting against time to save lives and relieve impact of Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
More than 50,000 people are feared dead as the confirmed death toll in Sichuan has reached 19,509 by 4 PM Thursday.
A total of 4.15 million houses in 17 of Sichuan's cities and prefectures were damaged during the quake, while 216,000 have collapsed. The province has 21 cities and prefectures in total.
60,000 rescued
By Thursday morning, over 60,000 people trapped and injured during the quake have been rescued by army, armed police personnel, policemen, medical teams and local civilians.
A total of seven schools, including two kindergartens, in Mianzhu, north of the provincial capital of Sichuan, collapsed during the quake burying 1,700 people under the ruins. Over 300 of the buried have been rescued, with another 1,300 bodies found so far. Rescue personnel are also engaging in the rescue mission of some 700 students buried under the ruins of the Dongqi Middle School in the Hanwang township of Deyang city.
As of 12 PM Thursday, 360 students have been rescued from the ruins of the Beichuan Middle School in the Beichuan county, with another 700 more still buried under ruins of the school's main mansion.
By 4 PM Thursday, emergency relief teams from the China Seismological Bureau (CSB) and more than ten provinces and municipalities had saved 157 survivors in quake-affected areas in Sichuan.
More soldiers, police arrive
The number of Chinese army and armed police personnel dispatched to quake-hit areas by Thursday has reached a record 95,553, with 148 military and civilian aircraft used for disaster relief.
A total of 72 medical teams consisted of more than 2,160 military medical staff have arrived at quake-hit regions and engaged in disaster relief work.
As of 6:50 PM Thursday, Chinese army and armed police personnel have reached all 58 counties and townships severely damaged in Monday's quake, including Wenchuan county, the epicenter, Maoxian county and Lixian county.
Restoration of transportation, communication in progress
Rescuers finished rush repair on the quake-damaged road from Lixian County to Wenchuan at 9 PM on Thursday.
The road was part of the national highway No. 317, which runs from Nagqu. in Tibet Autonomous Region, to Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, with Maerkang, Lixian, Wenchuan, and Dujiangyan along the route.
Four temporary bridges had also been built Thursday over the Zipingpu reservoir in Dujiangyan City, connecting the city with Yingxiu township of Wenchuan.
Large-sized rescue equipments, including heavy-lifting gear, excavators, and bulldozers, and large number of troops would be sent into the epicenter, an officer with the Chengdu Military Area said.
On the rails, most of the damaged bridges and railways of the Baoji-Chengdu Raiway had been repaired by Thursday, although there was no further detail as to when the Railway would resume function. Traffic on other railways linking Chengdu to the rest of the country had all resumed as of 4 PM Tuesday.
The Jiuzhaigou Huanglong Airport located near the tourist attraction of Jiuzhaigou also resumed function Thursday, taking about 4,000 travelers stranded at the airport since Monday off from the airport.
By Thursday, power supply had been basically resumed in most parts of Sichuan. However, Beichuan County and Aba Prefecture, where power supply facilities suffer huge damages in the quake, were still in blackout.
In addition, all seven worst-stricken counties in the Sichuan quake including Wenchuan, Lixian, Maoxian, Qingchuan, Mianzhu, Pingwu, and Heishui, have resumed communication with rescue authorities through cellphones, land-line telephones or satellite telephones respectively.
Relief goods
The Ministry of Civil Affairs has allocated 127,580 tents, 220,000 quilts, and 170,000 cotton-padded clothes to the quake-hit areas.
The civil affairs and finance ministries have also initiated an emergency purchase plan aiming to provide more tents, clothes, flashlights and other relief goods needed by the quake-hit areas.
By 3 PM Thursday, 37,700 tents and 50,000 quilts has already arrived at Sichuan.
As of 8 PM Wednesday, the Chengdu Military Area Command has airdropped 33.3 tons of food, medicine and tents to quake-hit Wenchuan, Lixian, Maoxian counties, and carried 156 injured people in critical conditions to hospitals.
Six military transport aircraft were launched on Thursday to airdrop food, medicines and other relief goods to quake-hit areas, along with a total of 28 helicopters transporting 106 army personnel to Beichuan county, and carrying 124 injured people to hospitals.
Domestic donations hit 1.34 bln yuan
Domestic donations in both cash and goods to the quake-hit areas had risen to 1.34 billion yuan (192 million US dollars) on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA).
The MCA had received donations of 58 million yuan, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has received 624 million yuan, and the China Charity Federation has received about 220 million yuan.
A chartered freight flight of the Taiwan-based China Airlines also arrived in Chengdu Thursday loaded with relief materials to quake-hit regions in Sichuan.
It carried 110 tonnes of blankets, tents, clothes, first aid packets and other materials donated by Taiwan's charity institutions.
(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2008)
